An advocate for the homeless and low income housing expert is the first candidate to jump *splash* into the 43rd District race to replace Rep. Brady Walkinshaw in the State Legislature.
Nicole Macri, an 11-year Capitol Hill resident, announced her plans to run Thursday in the November election.
UPDATE: It’s a Capitol Hill showdown. Political consultant and LGBTQ advocate Thomas Pitchford quietly entered the 43rd District race in January. The Capitol Hill resident told CHS he decided to take a “slow approach” to the campaign and would likely have a public-facing campaign launch in March.
As the housing director for the Downtown Emergency Service Center, Macri oversees housing and service programs for some 6,000 chronically homeless adults. She is also the board chair of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance and serves on Seattle’s Housing Levy Oversight Committee.
“This was neither an easy decision for me nor one that I took lightly,” Macri said in an email to supporters. “But, my decision to run for the legislature boils down to this: Olympia needs more advocates and champions for affordable housing and mental health.”
The 43rd District seat opened up in December when Walkinshaw decided to make a run in Seattle’s 7th Congressional District — a seat held for 14 terms by the retiring Rep. Jim McDermott. The 43rd covers several neighborhoods on both sides of the cut, including Capitol Hill north of E Madison, University District, Madison Park, Montlake, Wallingford, Eastlake, Greenlake and parts of Fremont, Ravenna, South Lake Union and downtown.
Macri’s deep resume in homelessness and low income housing work will be a strong asset in her campaign as demands for bold action on those issues ramp up in Seattle. First endorsers for Macri include City Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Lisa Herbold, Mike O’Brien, and former councilors Nick Licata and Sally Clark. Real Change founder Tim Harris and former Tenants Union director Jon Grant have also backed Macri’s campaign.
According to her bio, Macri was born in New York City and grew up in public housing. She attended Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she met her partner of 23 years, Deb Cayz. The couple moved to Seattle in 1999.
Meanwhile, the race to represent Capitol Hill, and most of Seattle, in Congress is ramping up with Walkinshaw and at least two other candidates in so far. King County Council member Joe McDermott entered the race last month, followed by State Sen. Pramila Jayapal’s announcement one day later at Seattle Central College. A Capitol Hill music manager has also launched an “exploratory Twitter profile” for the race that many felt would draw a long list of competitors following McDermott’s 27-year run.
